Moldova Might Not Reap
What U.S. Farmers Sowed

CHISINAU, Moldova -- American farmers working in Europe's poorest country worry that the communist government there will reverse U.S.-backed reforms that have boosted agricultural output for the first time in a decade.

The Americans, working for a U.S.-funded aid program, pioneered the dismantling of Moldova's bankrupt Soviet-era collective farms in the 1990s and arranged loans and training for 500,000 new landowners. Last year, production was up 4% and food exports to Russia and Belarus doubled.